33 F.3d 53 (4th Cir. 1994), 93-5537, U.S. v. Anjum
| Citation | 33 F.3d 53 |
| Party Name | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Fayaz ANJUM, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Noor AHMAD, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Case Date | August 10, 1994 |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals, U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Page 53
Editorial Note:
This opinion appears in the Federal reporter in a table titled "Table of Decisions Without Reported Opinions". (See FI CTA4 Rule 36 regarding use of unpublished opinions)
Argued: June 10, 1994.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. Herbert N. Maletz, Senior Judge, sitting by designation. (CR-92-96)
David Warren Lease, Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant Anjum;
Isaac Joe, Jr., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant Ahmad.
Katherine Jacobs Armentrout, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.
Lawrence S. Greenwald, Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant Anjum.
Lynne A. Battaglia, United States Attorney, Jan Paul Miller, Assistant United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.
D.Md.
AFFIRMED.
Before WILKINSON and NIEMEYER, Circuit Judges, and WILLIAMS, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.
OPINION
PER CURIAM:
Appellants in this case challenge their convictions for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 963. Appellants' primary contention is that the government failed to present sufficient evidence to support the jury's findings of guilt. Because the jury's verdicts were supported by substantial evidence, however, we reject appellants' claims and affirm their convictions.
I.
During his incarceration in a federal prison facility, inmate Afsar Khan met fellow inmate Khalid Khan. Their conversations in prison led Afsar Khan to believe that Khalid Khan was involved in ongoing heroin importation. In July 1991, after his release from prison, Afsar Khan notified Special Agent Dennis Bass of the U.S. Customs Service of his suspicions. SA Bass instructed Afsar Khan to contact Khalid Khan, who by then had been released from jail and was residing in Peshawar, Pakistan. Although Khalid Khan initially denied any involvement in the drug business, he later telephoned Afsar Khan to discuss a proposed drug transaction.
On August 22, 1991, Khalid Khan informed Afsar Khan that approximately 1.235 kilograms of heroin had been imported into the United States, and that the first kilogram of this amount would sell for $100,000. Khalid Khan instructed Afsar Khan to contact Khalid Khan's courier and to pay him $15,000 upon receiving the heroin. Afsar Khan was to pay the remaining $85,000 to Khawaja Arshad in New York, to whom he was to identify himself as "Mr. Durrani's man; care of Tariq Saraf Peshawar." On August 26, 1991, Afsar Khan and SA Bass, acting in an undercover capacity, met with two couriers in Baltimore. The couriers delivered more than a kilogram of heroin, 1 and informed SA Bass that they had personally imported it from Pakistan. SA Bass then delivered the $15,000 to the couriers.
Following that meeting, Afsar Khan and SA Bass contacted Khawaja Arshad to arrange for payment of the remaining $85,000. Arshad, however, refused to come to Baltimore to pick up the money. On September 4, 1991, Afsar Khan received a telephone message from appellant Fayaz Anjum, who subsequently stated that he was in Los Angeles and would travel to Baltimore to pick up the $85,000 for Khalid Khan. Anjum requested that payment be made in "big bills." Afsar Khan later telephoned Anjum and stated that he would await Khalid Khan's instructions. Afsar Khan also stated that the money was "drug money." When Afsar Khan called Khalid Khan in Pakistan, Khalid Khan instructed him to pay the money to Anjum. Khalid Khan assured Afsar Khan that individuals working with him in Pakistan knew Anjum.
On September 5, 1991, Anjum travelled to Baltimore and met with Afsar Khan. Afsar Khan delivered the $85,000 to Anjum, who counted the money and complained that it was not in large bills. Anjum wrote out and signed a receipt for Afsar Khan. As part of a pre-arranged ruse, however, a Baltimore police officer drove up to the scene and asked for permission to search the car. Afsar Khan granted the permission, the money was discovered, and both men denied any knowledge of the money. Police confiscated the $85,000 after dogs detected the presence of drugs on the bills, but neither man was arrested. After the police left, Afsar Khan returned the receipt to Anjum.
In the days after this incident, Khalid Khan, suspicious about the confiscation of the funds, again contacted Afsar Khan and asserted that Afsar Khan still owed him $85,000. Khalid Khan directed Afsar Khan to contact Anjum so they could arrange to recover the money from the police. When Afsar Khan called Anjum, Anjum stated that he had spoken with people in Pakistan and that they must go to the police to seek a return of the money. Afsar Khan, however, refused to do so. In the following months, conversations between the numerous participants continued. During this time, SA Bass received a sample of heroin from Pakistan in an envelope marked "Tariq Ahmad," bearing a return address of Peshawar, Pakistan. In November 1991, Anjum stated to Afsar Khan that his contact in Pakistan was a man named Tariq, Khalid Khan's neighbor.
In January 1992, the dispute over the $85,000 appeared to reach a resolution, as SA Bass agreed to pay $40,000 to Khawaja Arshad in New York. Khalid Khan explained to SA Bass that one of his partners, Taviz Khan, had approved of the transaction. After Afsar Khan and SA Bass travelled to New York, however, Arshad refused to accept any drug money.
In March 1992, SA Bass and Afsar Khan were contacted by two individuals, Taviz Khan and Ghulam Mohammad, and told to deliver the $40,000 to someone in Baltimore who would identify himself as "Shahji Tiger." Shahji Tiger turned out to be appellant Noor Ahmad. On March 13, 1992, Afsar Khan spoke with Ahmad, who stated that he was coming to Baltimore and that Afsar Khan should bring "big bills." On March 17, Afsar Khan and SA Bass met with Ahmad and his bodyguard, Javid Hanif, in Baltimore. SA Bass drove them to an undercover location where they spoke for three and a half hours. During that meeting, SA Bass told Ahmad and Hanif about receipt of the heroin in Baltimore in August 1991, and about the loss of the $85,000 in September. Ahmad told SA Bass that additional shipments of heroin would be arriving, and described to SA Bass how large amounts of heroin could be imported into the United States. Ahmad further stated that his contact in the organization was Ghulam Mohammad. At the end of the meeting, SA Bass refused to deliver any money to Ahmad, stating that he would instead travel to Pakistan to meet with the organization's principals. Approximately two months later, Ahmad called SA Bass and indicated that he was interested in returning to Pakistan and working for SA Bass from there. Later that same day, Ahmad left SA Bass a message that he did not trust Bass and would no longer deal with him.
On March 11, 1992, a federal grand jury indicted Fayaz Anjum along with several other members of the conspiracy. Count I charged Anjum with conspiracy to import heroin into the United States, see 21 U.S.C. § 963, and Count II charged him with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin, see 21 U.S.C. § 846. On August 12, 1992, a grand jury returned a superseding indictment, which added Noor Ahmad as one of the defendants listed in Counts I and II. A jury trial commenced on April 12, 1993, and on April 21, the jury returned verdicts of guilty for both defendants on Counts I and II. Anjum received concurrent sentences of 124 months imprisonment on each count. Ahmad was sentenced to 130 months imprisonment on each count,...
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